ヒト

Japanese

Etymology

Alternative spelling of 人 (hito, “person; human”).

Usage notes

In the context of the sciences, the names of organisms are commonly spelled in katakana. In biology, for instance, this spelling ヒト would be used to convey the specific scientific sense of human or Homo sapiens, as opposed to the more general sense of person when spelled in kanji as 人.

In manga and other creative contexts, spellings are much more fluid, and rendering this term in katakana as ヒト may or may not imply the human sense.

Definitions

For pronunciation and definitions of ヒト – see the following entry.

【人ひと】1 [noun] a person, human [noun] (sciences, specifically) Homo sapiens; human [noun] an individual [noun] mankind, people [noun] character, personality [noun] an average person [noun] (law) legal person [noun] This term needs a translation to English. [noun] an adult [noun] someone (else) [pronoun] (archaic) second-person personal pronoun: you

(This term, ヒト (hito), is the katakana spelling of the above term.)